Dr Leanne Morrison Bsc, Msc, PhD

Lecturer in Health Psychology

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Dr Leanne Morrison is a Lecturer in Health Psychology within the Centre for Community and Clinical Applications of Health Psychology, Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Faculty of Medicine.

Understanding how and why users engage with the advice and support provided by digital health behaviour change interventions is crucial for improving their effectiveness and implementation

Prior to completing her doctoral studies, Leanne was an undergraduate (BSc Psychology, 1st) and postgraduate (MSc Health Psychology, distinction) student at the University of Southampton. Leanne completed her PhD in 2011, also at the University of Southampton. Her doctoral studies identified and examined how technology-based features influenced users’ engagement with digital health behaviour change interventions.

Since 2011, Leanne has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow, then Lecturer in Health Psychology, and has been involved in developing and evaluating a number of digital health behaviour change interventions for both adult and adolescent populations. These interventions have targeted a range of health behaviours including weight management, healthy dietary choices, malnutrition, and stress management. Leanne is also deputy director of the LifeGuide Research Programme at the University of Southampton, which offers free, open-access software tools to enable behavioural scientists to develop their own web- and app-based behavioural interventions.

Professional memberships: European Health Psychology Society and chartered member of the British Psychological Society.

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Research interests

Leanne’s core research focus is in understanding how novel technologies can best be harnessed to deliver behaviour change interventions and improve health outcomes. In particular, she is interested in the person-based development of interventions, understanding and measuring effective engagement with digital health interventions using mixed methods, and evaluating scalable models for supporting effective health interventions in primary care and community settings.

Work in Progress:

Leanne is currently leading a pilot project to examine the barriers and facilitators to disseminating and supporting an online weight management programme through UK community pharmacies. Leanne is also co-leading the development of an intervention to support the screening and treatment of malnutrition in older adults within primary care. Leanne is co-applicant on a project to develop a digital intervention to support dietary change in pregnant teenagers.